'Stop use of mercury in dentistry'

Health experts and environmentalists are calling for laws that will gradually phase out the use of mercury in dentistry.

In particular, they are calling for alternatives to dental amalgam, which contains mercury, to help forestal the health implications that the metal poses to humans.

They made the call at a discussion and awareness-creation programme on dental amalgam, jointly organised by  Ecological Restorations, an environmental non-governmental organisation; the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry and the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEFSGP) in Accra on Thursday.

Dental amalgam is a mixture of mercury, silver, tin and copper. Mercury, which makes up about 50 per cent of the compound, is used to bind the metals together to provide a strong, hard, durable filling used by dentists.

Situation in Ghana
Dr Emmanuel Kyeremateng-Amoah of the Occupational and Environmental Health Unit of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), who spoke about the current situation, said there was no national policy yet on the use of mercury in the healthcare sector and specifically, the use of dental amalgams.

He said due to its cheap nature, people, especially those in the developing world prefer its use although according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the mercury in dental amalgam was the greatest source of mercury vapour in non-industrialised settings, exposing patients to mercury levels significantly exceeding those set for food and air. 

He gave some of the adverse health effects of mercury as impaired vision and hearing; paralysis, insomnia, emotional instability, developmental deficits during foetal development, attention deficit and developmental delays during childhood.

According to him, studies conducted by WHO in 2013, suggest that mercury might have no threshold below which some adverse effects could occur. 

Way forward
 Kyeremateng-Amoah called for a national strategy to minimise and ultimately replace the use of mercury in healthcare.

Dr Eva Evelyn Opoku of the Department of Restorative Dentistry, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Korle Bu, said among others, that research on monkeys had shown that mercury released from amalgam restorations was absorbed and accumulated in various organs such as the kidney, brain, lung, liver, gastro-intestinal tract and the exocrine glands.

She also said there were alternatives to dental amalgam but the problem was that they were more expensive, and as such cheaper alternatives had to be sourced.

The Executive Director of Ecological Restorations, Mr Emmanuel Odjam-Akumatey, in a welcome address, called for more education on the effects of mercury, phased out where necessary and the ratification of the government of the Minamata Convention; a global agreement to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.

The National Coordinator of GEFSGP, Mr George Ortsin, who chaired the programme, called for research and legislation into the proper use and disposal of mercury in Ghana.